Monday, August 25, 2008

Blog Talk--veinglory

eromtic whatmance?

It seems like increasingly the existence of erotic romance has begun to warp the understanding of erotica and romance as core genres. First it seemed like a lot of readers were unaware of erotica that was not romantic. Then I came across this summary of the genre distribution of ebooks:

"What a shocker, 15% of all the titles available are romance, if you include the 4% erotica in there too, the lion’s share of ebooks are ‘adult’ content." [Alex Lee]

Romance is 'adult'? Golly, maybe some of the more conservative members of the RWA were right with their warnings about the Ides of Sex turning the whole genre to porn? (The shocker to me is that only 15% of ebook fiction is romance, I'd have guessed more like 50%.) See the full results here.

The Ultimate MMF

I wonder where the whole sexification issue leaves inspy romance. At authorfest 2008 it was suggested that the two hot genres in romance are erotic romance, and inspirational. Of course religious romance comes in other stripes and Christianity is a large and internally diverse world religion. So the ultimate cross-over might be erotic inspirational romance?

As for my sub-title, check out: Cowboys and Schoolteachers. And I quote: "this analysis finds that secular men are depicted as overwhelmingly strong, economically and physically, but that this strength is frequently overcome by the emotional strength of the heroine, who tames them. Christian heroes, on the other hand, are less overpowering figures at the beginning of the texts but are more dominant within the relationship, subject instead to the will of God."

Specifically "Lori Perkins is a paid editor and minor shareholder in Ravenous Romance™. She does not take a commission on any book sold to Ravenous Romance™." Which actually does clear a few things up. And "Ravenous Romance™ does accept non-agented submissions. You can email us at submissions@ravenousromance.com for submission guidelines." --So I have added them to the PLIST.

8 comments:

Actually, I am working on that erotic inspirational romance. (this surprises no one, I'm sure)

Okay, it's an erotic, gay, PAGAN inspirational romance, but still! It's about a damaged couple coming together to make a whole. Gabe's paganism plays a very large role in it, and Sean kinda drifts into the practices, eventually having a religious experience at Beltaine.

If we wanted to be strictly Judeo-Christian, we could write Hosea. Hosea married a prostitute. He had children by her. She left him for a pimp. He took care of her even while she was gone. She, realizing how much he loved her, came back and they had a happy ending. Classic Romance, with lotsa sex. A best-seller, except for the fact her name is Gomer.

Anonymous said: I think there may have been some confusion on exactly how Ms. Perkins was paid for Ms. Hughes' deal, which is probably why those comments were deleted and the PR statement issued today.

So, Ms. Hughes didn't read her contract with Ms. Perkins? Or perhaps Ms. Perkins told Ms. Hughes she wouldn't be taking her normal 15% for the books sold to RR (instead of amending the contract and providing something in writing - something I can't imagine any reputable agent would do), but Ms. Hughes forgot? And why delete the post, rather than just post a correction or explanation for the "mistake"? Was Ms. Hughes hoping no one would remember she'd told us how her agent was being paid for the books sold to RR? And why has the other RR author deleted the publisher's name from her blog post and replaced it with the generic "an online publisher" term?

I'm sorry, but this all seems rather underhanded and strange. Or maybe it's just that the name of this publisher came into the spotlight well before they were prepared to answer questions or address author concerns. So, instead of having an official team - or even an official individual representative - in place, the RR PTB were caught by surprise when Dear Author and EREC started posting about them. Or worse, or they were totally unaware of what was happening. Into the fray steps 2 RR authors, taking it upon themselves to speak for RR, and apparently (?) providing erroneous or half-baked information.

Maybe. LOL.

I think RR reps (both official and self-declared) have done a horrible job handling this whole issue. From the derogatory comments about existing epublishers to the cut-n-paste post from their PR agent, to the thinly veiled threat against Veinglory's career, they've done little more than confuse and offend their peers.